


Christmas Cheer Not for Sale

by elleavantemm



Series: Building Family [1]
Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-13
Updated: 2012-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-29 10:39:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/319001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elleavantemm/pseuds/elleavantemm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Une wants this Christmas to be wonderful for Mariamaia, but her cheer is forced, and Mariamaia isn't making it easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas Cheer Not for Sale

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the prompt "forced cheer" for the winter round of the livejournal Advent Challenge.

Celebrating Christmas the year following the end of the Eve wars was exceptionally difficult. Une never regretted her decision to adopt Mariemaia, but it was a struggle every day of the year to create a normal environment that wasn’t filled with reminders and judgment. The holidays were a particularly difficult time, so heavily overshadowed by the memory of those who had fought and died. Now two years later, Une wanted desperately to make it the best Christmas that she could for Mariemaia, hoping that a successful holiday might bring them closer together.

The afternoon of Mariemaia’s last day of school for the holidays, Une waited with a bland smile on her face by the car. When the young girl reached the vehicle, Une’s smile widened. “I have an idea,” she said. “It’s sort of a surprise.”

“A surprise?”

“Come get in the car and you’ll see.”

The drive took them out of the city towards a small farm village just beyond. “Where are we going?” Mariemaia asked, wide eyes taking in the changing scenery. Gone were the tall buildings of the city, replaced by single level ranchers and fields as far as the eye could see.

“I thought we might go pick out a Christmas tree.”

“Oh.” Her tone was far from enthusiastic and Une worried that she was trying too hard. “I’ve never picked out a Christmas tree before,” Mariemaia continued.

“We’re going to a farm, rather than a lot. They’ll cut the tree down just for you. And then we can take it home and decorate it.”

Une pulled off onto a dirt road that continued for several minutes before coming upon a wide property lined with trees, a hand painted sign reading: “Cut your own tree $50.” The smell of pine was heavy, coming up through the vents of the car and settling like a blanket. Une breathed in deep and sighed, looking across the car to smile warmly at her companion. “Are you excited?”

“A bit.”

Parking the car near the main building, they went in to find information on the tree hunting process. A middle-aged woman sat behind a counter doing a crossword puzzle. She looked up when the bell above the door rang happily.

“Afternoon.”

“Hello,” Une returned. “We’d like to get a tree. It’s our first Christmas together, so we want the greenest tree you have.” The woman behind the counter blinked and smirked slightly; obviously she’d heard the line before. Une felt her stomach sink at her failed attempt at humour and folded her arms over her chest.

“Take a wander out through the trees until you see one that you like. Then take this tag,” she handed Une a bright purple tag with a number on it, “and tie it to one of the branches. Then on this,” she passed a slip of paper with spaces for information about quadrant number and tree type, “write down the appropriate information - don’t worry, there’ll be signs regularly that tell you what you need to know - and then you come back here and I’ll send someone out to cut it down for you.”

Une pocketed the paper and the tag. “Ready?” She held out her hand for Mariemaia to hold, but the young girl chose to keep her hands folded in front of her, following Une dutifully out into the lines of trees. Une sighed at her young companion’s reluctance to treat her as little more than a caretaker. “Let me know if you see one you like. I want this to be your decision.”

“What should I be looking for, exactly?”

“I don’t know, really. Whatever you think makes a good tree: full, thin, tall, short.”

“That isn’t particularly concrete criteria.”

“Mariemaia,” Une stopped and crouched down to be eye-to-eye. “This is supposed to be fun. Don’t think so much about what a good tree should look like. Just look for a tree that you’d like to see at home.” She forced a smile - something she felt she was doing a lot of that day. “Can you do that for me?”

Mariemaia nodded.

They wandered the trees for some time, quadrant by quadrant. row by row, until Mariemaia stopped to consider one tree in particular. It wasn’t too terribly tall, not much taller than Une, but it had full branches and a long needles. “I like this one,” she announced. Une turned around, unaware that Mariemaia had stopped following her.

“It’s beautiful,” Une said. “This is the one then.” She fished the purple tie out of her pocket and tied it onto one of the branches. “Do you see one of those signs around anywhere?” They found it a several feet back. Scribbling down the correct information, they headed back towards the main building.

“What are we going to put on the tree?” Mariemaia inquired.

“Well... I don’t actually have a lot of decorations. We’ll take the tree home and get it set up and then we can go to the store and you can pick the decorations out.”

“Don’t you want any say on what the tree looks like?”

“I’m confident that whatever you choose will be beautiful. I want it to be special for you.” Mariemaia shrugged, swinging her arms idly as she followed along back.

In under half an hour, the tree was cut, wrapped, paid for, and loaded into the car. Une tried to get Mariemaia to show some enthusiasm about their purchase, but the girl only smiled vaguely and climbed into the car. Une herself was excited at the prospect of bringing some holiday cheer into their home. “What kind of decorations should we get for the tree, Maria? Should we do a colour theme? Or do your tastes run a bit more eclectic?”

Mariemaia didn’t answer, arms still folded over her chest and eyes focused somewhere out the window. Une was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. Regardless of how much she tried, she wasn’t going to be able to get this particular girl to respond. The drive back to the city was silent; Une didn’t even bother turning on the radio, as the white noise wouldn’t do anything to detract from the awkward tension in the vehicle.

Thankfully, the tree added life to their small living room. Mariemaia seemed to brighten at her choice standing tall in their home. Une wanted to push to buy decorations, but she decided to avoid the suggestion for the time being.

“Hungry?”

“Not really,” Mariemaia replied. “Aren’t we going to get decorations for the tree?”

“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to go right away.”

“You said we would go once the tree was set up.”

“Okay.”

The store was crowded with late Christmas shoppers. Mariemaia led Une through the crush of people towards the decorations. Aisle after aisle of bulbs and bobbles, garland and lights, more decorations than one person could ever possible need or use. Mariemaia stood amongst them all transfixed. She reached out and ran her fingers over the various boxes, considering their contents with a focused stare. “I can get whatever I want?” she asked, barely more than a whisper.

“Whatever you want.”

Mariemaia picked up a box from the shelf, looking at it critically. “What would my father have liked?” she asked abruptly.

Une felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her. Talking about Treize was difficult enough as it was, but to have him brought up so abruptly, and by his daughter no less, was not something she was immediately prepared to handle. She searched through her memories of the man, but all they revealed was that she didn’t know the man particularly well at all beyond their relationship as subordinate and leader. Their interactions had been business at nearly every turn. “He was fond of birds,” Une answered after a moment.

Mariemaia wrinkled her nose and returned the box to the shelf. “My father wouldn’t have been fond of birds. They’re dirty, stupid creatures.”

Une felt something snap within her at the words and she had to restrain herself from saying something that she would ultimately regret. “I realize that you think a great deal of your father, Maria, but trust me in the things that I tell you.”

“Why should I believe you? The only reason that we live together is because you felt sorry for me.”

Ice sank into Une’s stomach, all colour draining from her face. This attempt at instilling some holiday cheer into their lives had been a complete waste of time and effort. Nothing Une did would ever change the way the girl thought about her; nothing Une did would make her trust her. The two stood staring at one another, a challenge on Mariemaia’s face.

The timing was near perfect when Sally Po turned down the aisle and greeted them warmly. “Une! Mariemaia! How nice to run into you here. Did you get a tree like you were telling me?”

“Hello, Ms. Po,” Mariemaia greeted cordially.

“You’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you, Maria. Living with Une must be doing good things for you.” The tension was suddenly diffused, the challenge gone from Mariemaia’s eyes, and Une’s body relaxed as it always did when Sally was around, and she could breathe again.

Mariemaia seemed to become a completely different person with the presence of someone new to focus her attention on. “How are things at school? All finished for the holidays, I assume.”

“School is very well, thank you, Ms. Po. I am at the top of my class.”

Sally grinned wide and genuine. “I’m not surprised in the least. You are a brilliant girl.”

“Are you shopping alone?”

“Hm?” Sally replied, focusing her attention - and her smile - on Une. “Oh, yes. Just came to pick up some last minute things for my own place.”

“Would you like to join us?” Une asked casually. “I know you don’t get to see Maria very often.” The request was made as much for Une’s benefit as for Sally’s.

“I’d be delighted.”

The two women helped Mariemaia to pick out several kinds of decorations and several strings of lights. On the drive home they stopped to pick up a frozen lasagna and fresh garlic bread for dinner to accompany an evening of dressing the tree. Sally chatted casually with Mariemaia, asking her about the other children in her class, and school assignments, and other interests she had. Mariemaia revealed that the boys in her class were incredibly immature and that she didn’t find their squabbling amongst each other to be attractive the way the other girls seem to, but that everyone was generally polite - it was evident that she was holding something back, but Sally didn’t feel the need to push; she exuded great pride in her grades and in the appreciation that her teacher showed her; she talked about her attempts to draw and her lack of confidence in her abilities, that she was interested in joining the school band and learning to play the flute, or the clarinet.

All of this came as a great surprise to Une, aside from Mariemaia’s excellent grades, as the young girl hardly shared any of these details with Une when she inquired. Yet it came as little surprise that Mariemaia would choose to share them with Sally; the woman had a way of making people want to tell her things. It was an impulse that Une sometimes felt herself fighting against.

“Would you like to see my drawings when we arrive home, Ms Po?”

“Of course. I would love to. I’m sure that they’re wonderful.”

Une was both grateful for Sally’s presence, but also intensely jealousy of her easy rapport. Why couldn’t she maintain such a relationship with Mariemaia? Why did it have to be so difficult?

Taking the opportunity to listen and learn about her young charge, Une sat back and watched as Sally and Mariemaia worked to hang lights and decorations, turning the once bare evergreen into a colourful masterpiece. “Would you like to hang some decorations, Une?” Sally asked, holding out a few of the remaining bulbs.

Une politely declined. “This is Maria’s tree.”

When it was finished, Une was struck by the artistic arrangement of the ornaments, organized in such a way that the lights reflected just so. Mariemaia looked on with pride, turning to grace Sally and Une with a beautiful, beaming smile - a truly rare occurance. Looking at the clock above the mantle, Une tapped her wrist in an all too familiar gesture. “Time for bed,” she said.

“But it’s not a school night! I’m on holiday. Can’t I stay up just a little longer?”

“You can read quietly in your room for an hour, and then it’s lights out.”

Mariemaia looked as though she wanted to argue, but instead she nodded her head tersely and went to her room to get ready for bed.

“She’s a remarkable young girl,” Sally commented, lounging languidly on the sofa. Une thought idly about how easily Sally fit into their lives; how effortless her interactions with Mariemaia were.

“She is. And yet I can’t seem to get her to open up for me at all.”

Sally rose from the sofa and pushed a strand of hair behind Une’s ear. “You try too hard, Une. She can tell.”

“I don’t know how else to act around her.”

“Children require a bit of give every once and a while. Don’t be so rigid with her.”

“She hates me.”

Sally lifted Une’s chin with her fingers, looking her straight in the eye. “Mariemaia does not hate you. She’s had a difficult life and she’s at a difficult age. I know that it can be difficult to let go sometimes, but don’t be afraid to cut the tether.”

Une smiled weakly, and Sally returned it warmly. It seemed so natural to lean in and press her lips against the other woman’s. They were warm and soft and forgiving. Sally kissed back, opening her mouth slightly to suck gently at Une’s lip. Neither saw Mariemaia, who peeked out from behind her bedroom door, a small smile playing on her own lips.

The following Christmas found Une, Sally, and Mariemaia wandering through a field of trees, looking for the tree that they would be taking home.


End file.
